To Be Common Like You
by Share Your Inspiration
Summary: Hotel heiress, Alice Cullen, crashes into the life of impoverished uni student, Jasper Whitlock, with a simple proposal; she wants to know how the other half live. Can Jasper grant her wish? Source of inspiration Song: 'Common People' AH/OOC


Title: To Be Common Like You.  
Rating: M/NC17  
Summary: Hotel heiress, Alice Cullen, crashes into the life of impoverished uni student, Jasper Whitlock, with a simple proposal; she wants to know how the other half live. Can Jasper grant her wish? Source of inspiration Song: 'Common People' AH/OOC  
Disclaimer: _I own nothing. Characters are all Stephenie Meyers' creations, I just want to play with them. Lots of thanks must go to my lovely beta as well as my team of supporters, even if they didn't know they were supporting me writing this story. _

Source of Inspiration: Common People, William Shatner version: http:/www(dot)youtube(dot)com/watch?v=SRPa0GhxGUs&feature=related

To read all the entries in the Share Your Inspiration contest: http:/www(dot)fanfiction(dot)net/u/2580394/Share_Your_Inspiration

~ 0 ~

My mouth tasted like an ashtray. Actually it tasted like ass, but 'ashtray' was probably a more palatable simile given the circumstances. _What circumstances? _You ask. Yeah, you would ask.

I tried to cast my mind back to follow the events that had led me straight into my current situation. To the little—and I do mean little—black-haired woman sleeping beside me in my bed. Snoring actually, who knew someone so tiny could make quite so much noise?

The little black-haired human chainsaw's name was Alice and she was the last person I ever expected to bed, though I couldn't even try to convince myself it was just sex. The truth was I had been captured by her beauty from the very first glance.

But it was evident from that first sight that she was out of my league. Everything on her was labelled; all designer. She probably had wardrobes full of the stuff at home. Fucked if I knew which designers, all I knew was that her clothes were expensive. She came from money. It was obvious in the way she looked and the way she talked. It practically dripped from every pore of her body. Her make-up was heavy but not overdone, and her thick black hair cascaded down her back in a raven river. As she walked, her hips swayed from side to side, and her heels tapped in Morse code, sending messages designed to make every cock in hearing distance stand at attention.

Her voice was thick with a yank accent that immediately made me think of hours spent watching the Godfather when I was young. She was classy, fuck-hot and utterly unattainable—so I didn't even bother trying to get her attention. Instead, I sat at a booth nursing a rum and Coke and tried to remember why I had agreed to help organise the function to welcome the foreign students to the University. Of course, I could never _really_ forget; it was for the measly few dollars they were paying me. It was measly, yes, but it was also enough to buy my next meal. In my opinion though, the whole thing was a joke; completely stupid and inane. We were doing nothing to break the stereotype that Australians were little more than drunken yobbos. _Welcome to Australia…here, have a drink._

Alice had sidled up to me early into the evening, giving me her full name. She was a Cullen, like the hotel chain. At first I thought it was a coincidence, but combined with the designer labels, perfectly manicured fingers and thick make-up, it all made sense.

She offered me her hand as she introduced herself.

"Jasper," I grunted as I offered mine in return. It was stained almost black with grease and oil, and calloused from the various odd-jobs I'd been doing over the summer break, so I had expected her to turn her nose up at it and walk away. To my surprise she grinned at me and clutched it tightly. Her hands were like silk against my rough palm; soft, smooth and delicate. I was afraid I would grip too tightly and hurt her.

She slid into the booth on the opposite side of me. She sat grinning for what felt like hours, her eyes holding mine captive and refusing to release them. "Can I buy you a drink?" she asked eventually.

I rolled my eyes. "Traditionally, the man does that."

She giggled. "I never was one for following tradition. Besides, I don't think you have the funds to buy my drinks."

I immediately felt put out by her assumption. I mean, sure, it was true, but it still annoyed me that she would just assume that it was. I was about to slide from the booth and melt into the night when she leaned across the table and grasped my arm. "Please? Let my Dad pay for it," she whispered before winking.

_Right, he's loaded,_ I reminded myself. At least it gave me an excuse to be a little more picky in the type of rum I was drinking. "Fine. I'll have a Bundy and Coke then."

She smiled and waved the waiter over. I tried to remember whether the bar even _had _waiters—I wasn't sure that it did. Maybe he was a bodyguard or minder or some shit. It didn't make a difference what he was, because he was back within a minute or two with a fresh round before being shooed away by her perfectly manicured hand. I watched as he took a seat by the bar, his eyes never leaving Alice—definitely a minder then.

She took a sip of her drink concentrating on it intently for a second before bringing her eyes back up to mine. She leaned forward conspiratorially. "I envy you," she whispered.

I was sure my hearing was failing me. "What? _You_ envy _me?_"

She nodded slightly.

"_Why_?" I asked, shocked that someone of her obvious wealth and standing would find _anything _about meto envy.

"Because your life is so easy," she murmured. "You can do what you want, when you want. Your every move isn't documented by the tabloids."

I scoffed. "My life isn't easy," I corrected her. "Most of the time I barely have enough money to feed myself, and look at you. I bet each hair on your pretty head is worth more than I pay in rent each week."

She laughed. "Money isn't everything."

"No," I agreed. "But it buys you everything."

"I want to be normal for once," she said wistfully. "I want to live like you do. I want to _love_ like you do. I just want to be _normal_." She said the word as if it was something to aspire to.

I shook my head. "Being normal ain't that easy, sweetheart."

"Why don't you show me?"

"What?" I laughed.

"Show me how the other half live."

"Me being the other half, of course?" I clarified.

She nodded and smiled a smile so bewitching I couldn't refuse. In that instant, she could have asked me to strip naked and run around the bar and I probably would have. Instead, I agreed to take her under my wing for a week of normalcy.

"What about Lurch?" I asked, thumbing the bodyguard in the too-tight suit who seemed to be watching us intently. I realised he was probably just doing his job, but it was still unnerving.

She smiled coyly and leaned a little closer. "Let me deal with him."

She swallowed the remaining contents of her champagne flute in one mouthful and winked at me. I followed her lead and downed the rest of my drink. She called the brute in a suit over and asked him to get us another round and told him we were going to dance. He watched as she dragged me onto the dance-floor, before turning to the bar to order. Almost the instant his back was turned she grabbed my hand and dragged me outside. We ran to the end of the street before ducking into an alley. She pulled out her mobile and called her father, explaining quickly that she needed some time alone and would be back in contact when she was ready to return to her life. She hung up the phone extraordinarily fast and turned it off immediately.

~ 0 ~

When we arrived back at my place, I paused for a moment before taking her inside. My little one bedroom apartment was probably smaller than her closet. I couldn't remember the state I had left it in and hoped like hell I hadn't left my underwear hanging on the couch or too many dishes in the sink.

I was relieved when I swung open the front door and it was reasonably clean. The first thing I did was offer her my bed and took the couch for myself. I saw her nose scrunch at my sheets. No doubt she was used to something with such-and-such thread count and cotton from another country. _Or maybe she uses satin sheets. _My mind offered up an image of her lithe body wrapped in red satin sheets to accompany the thought and I had to quickly disguise my lust-filled groan as a yawn. It would not do to have those sorts of thoughts about the girl who was sleeping in my bed. As it was, if she was found in my apartment, it would likely be assumed I kidnapped her. It would only take one look at her life, and then one look at mine to come to that conclusion. No one in their right mind would believe she _chose _to live like this.

I offered her one of my shirts and a pair of my shorts to sleep in and made a date with her for the following morning. After doing a spot of clothes shopping, I was going to personally take her on a journey through Woolworths, 'The Fresh Food People'. There was nothing I could think of that was more normal than shopping for groceries.

~ 0 ~

"Now, we need to buy enough food for a week," I told her. "And this is all we have to do it with." I held up two fifty dollar notes.

"But I have this." She grinned and held up a black American Express card which she'd used an hour earlier to purchase far more clothes than she needed for a week, in a whirlwind of shopping that displayed exactly how financially uninhibited her life usually was.

I shuddered as I recalled the experience.

"I thought the point was to be normal?" I asked. "Normal people don't have access to unlimited credit."

"It's not unlimited." She pouted.

"It's as good as," I murmured. "Put it away because it's no good here."

She laughed. "It's American Express, it's good _everywhere_."

"Not if you want to be _normal_."

She nodded and tucked the black card—which had a minimum annual spend that was at least ten times my annual income—back into her purse—which was probably worth more than my car—before bouncing over to the fruit and vegetable section. "So, who helps you out in this place?"

Images of the four assistants who had followed her around popped into my head and I shuddered. I pictured the same four assistants helping her at Woolworths and had to bite my lip to stop myself from laughing. I eventually swallowed my laughter enough to speak, "You help yourself."

She blinked at me before smiling her thousand-kilowatt smile again. "Oh, I see!" she exclaimed suddenly. "It's self-service. How… quaint."

If I had been watching the scene from the outside, I probably would have been doubled over from laughing so hard. As it was, I bit my tongue to stop from saying something I'd regret later. It was hard to believe someone could reach adulthood with so little common sense. At first, I thought she was hamming it up a little for sympathy, but then I realised that she really was _that_ clueless.

We spent the rest of the shopping 'adventure', as she called it, with her dancing down the aisles and picking up random food. She was fascinated by the tinned spaghetti and two-minute noodles; apparently she'd never seen anything like them before. I didn't feel the need to tell her that those items were staples in my diet, together with baked beans, cheap mince and sausages.

"Why does everyone look so sad?" Alice asked as we loaded the groceries from the trolley onto the conveyor belt at the check-out.

"Because no one really wants to be here."

She furrowed her brow. "But it's so much fun!" She laughed.

As I grabbed the few meagre bags and loaded them back into the trolley before handing over the two fifties to the cashier, I couldn't help but wonder if she would still think it was 'so much fun' when there was no food left at the end of the week.

Over the next few days, I took her on various excursions to demonstrate exactly what 'normal' entailed. We went to the library to stock up on reading materials. We took a walk around the park to get our exercise. By the end of the third day, my patience for her excitement over it all was wearing thin, even as dread that it would all be over soon began to niggle at me.

"You think this life is interesting?" I asked sharply as she sat and fed stale bread to the ducks in the botanical gardens. Just moments earlier she had been spouting off about how much fun she was having with all of these new experiences.

She smiled at me. "Of course it is! You can go where you want, when you want. No one stops you or follows you around."

"You will never know what this life is like," I snapped. "Because the moment it gets too hard for you, you can just whip out your Amex and fix everything."

"You think I'm that shallow?" she asked, shocked.

I laughed sardonically. "I know you are, look at you with your designer clothes, designer shades, designer shoes, designer bag, fuck, you probably even have a designer dog back home right?"

"You really think I can't live normally?" Her eyes were filling with tears but her voice was pitching higher. She was getting angry—from the set of her chin and the look in her eyes, I could tell she would be one scary little creature when angered—but I ignored the warnings and ploughed on with my side of the argument.

"I don't _think_ you can't…I _know_ you can't. I bet you couldn't bear to be separated from that precious black card for more than a week."

She stood looking me squarely in the eyes as she fished her card out of her purse. "_This_?" she screeched. "This means _nothing._ I can survive without it." To prove her point, she pitched it into the pond.

I stood staring with my mouth agape until the absurdity of the situation struck me and I burst out in hysterical laughter.

Alice responded to my laughter with tears. Unthinkingly, I raced to her and pulled her into my chest. She sobbed against me and I held her, lost and utterly out of my depth. I had grown up with two brothers—what did I know about crying girls?

Eventually her sniffles quietened and she raised her head to me. "I want to do something really different," she said.

I stifled my chuckle—as if throwing black Amex cards into duck ponds was an everyday occurrence—and asked her what she wanted to do.

The next thing I knew, we were at a drop-in discount hair salon.

"Are you sure about this?" I asked. I wasn't certain, but I thought getting a drastic haircut was something girls needed to consider in depth.

She beamed at me, her earlier tears completely dried, and nodded. "I need to do this. I think it's a way to become a new me."

I nodded and sat beside her as she waited for her turn. I was certain the cut she was about to get would be the cheapest she'd ever had. When she emerged though, she looked a million bucks. Her long hair was completely gone, and with it, some of her designer superiority. Her hair was cut short and choppy, and was set in random spikes around her head. She bit her lip, seeming nervous as she asked if it was alright.

"Alright?" I asked incredulously. "It looks fantastic."

She grinned at me before grabbing my hand and pulling me from the shop. "I had a thought while I was in the seat too."

"Uh oh," I joked.

"I'm going to get a job."

It was only the absolutely earnest look on her face that stilled my laughter. "What doing?"

"I don't know. What's something that normal people do?"

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes and tell her 'anything that they could to get a dollar in the door'.

"Oh, I could be a shop assistant!" she exclaimed as we passed a little jewellery shop. She didn't wait for an answer before ducking inside and asking if they had any positions available. They didn't, but the tenth shop we went to did. It was interesting to watch the way the managers reacted to her obvious confidence. She was offered the job on the spot, starting the very next day. It was hard to be anything but happy for her when I saw her excitement.

She clapped her hands as she came back out to me. Her enthusiasm was contagious. I picked her up and spun her around once, my lips drawn to hers. I stopped myself just in time, seconds before our mouths met. Her sweet breath washed over me and I closed my eyes, dropped my arms and stepped back. I blinked a few times to clear my head. I couldn't believe how close I had come to crossing the invisible line drawn along our burgeoning friendship.

"Let's go celebrate your employment," I said, grabbing her hand and leading her to a local pub. They were having dollar drinks for students, so it was cheap and easy to get drunk. Really drunk.

~ 0 ~

"I don't have enough money left for a cab," I slurred, trying to focus on the bus timetable, even though Alice had just declared we'd missed the last bus.

"I'll pay…" she trailed off. "Oh, I can't…I threw my card away." She started giggling hysterically then just as suddenly turned morose. "Why would I do that? I like my card."

"You wanted to slum it with me," I muttered.

She shook her head. "You're not slum."

I laughed. "That makes no sense."

"I'll call my Dad," she said. "He'll get a car for us."

I scoffed. "Sure…call Daddy the first time something goes wrong."

She slapped me and I blinked at her blankly.

"What the fuck was that for?" I asked, suddenly feeling a little more sober.

"You've never believed that I can do this. It's all a big joke to you! But I've survived in your world much better than you would ever survive in mine."

"Sure, it's such a hard life being an heiress, living it up on Daddy's dollar and not having a care in the world." I took a step closer to her, and raised my voice a little.

"You have no idea what my life is like!"

I chuckled darkly. "Parties, money, fancy cars and knowing where your next meal is coming from—it must be _very_ difficult."

"You make a mistake and no-one cares. I make one and it's splashed all over the magazines." She stepped closer to me. Her aroma wound its way around her body and filled my head.

"I already made a mistake," I snapped. "Agreeing to this stupid arrangement."

"Not as big a mistake as I made asking for it."

She raised her hand to slap me again, but this time I caught it. I was taken off guard again by how soft and fragile her hand was in mine. I pulled lightly on her arm, tugging her even closer to me. Her mouth was inches from mine, her body hard against me. My body grew hard in response. I sighed then gave a small chuckle.

"Let's forget about this argument and do what people from my walk of life do when we can't afford a taxi."

She scrunched her eyebrows together.

"Walk." I chuckled.

I turned her around and we started back in the direction of my unit. Our feet quickly found a shared rhythm and we chatted idly about everything and nothing, neither of us willing to bring up the argument from earlier. The walking and talking did little to occupy my mind, so I found myself thinking about the cute pixie alongside me. I realised that although I had only known her for a few short days, I couldn't remember what my life was like before she burst into it. It seemed everything was new and fresh again, and I was certain it wasn't just because I was seeing it through her eyes. I grew morose as I recalled her words to her father before she cut communication with him. She would be back in contact when she was ready to return to her usual life. I wondered how much longer my life would continue to be interesting to her. We had agreed on a week, but would she end it sooner? I began to panic as I realised that even if she stuck to her original timeline, she would be leaving me in just a few short days. I withdrew into myself but Alice didn't seem to notice, or at least if she did, she didn't comment.

It took a little over an hour to get back to my house. The upshot of the walk was that we were able to shake off the worst of the effects of the alcohol we'd imbibed, but even still we were both drunk. Really drunk.

I unlocked my front door and helped her inside. She spun around as she waltzed through the door, like a little pixie on speed. As I switched on the lights, she walked over to my stereo and, just as she had most nights, found yet another new radio station to listen to. The speakers began to blare out a loud, funky Latin sound and she grabbed my hands and pulled me toward her, quickly leading me into a salsa. At first I resisted, not wanting to allow myself the opportunity to get closer to her, but her uncontainable energy was too difficult to resist. I had no idea what I was doing, but she kept moving my hands across her body as she shook herself over me. I soon found a bit of a rhythm and she never stopped smiling as we twirled and danced through my tiny space. As the song finished, I dipped her and realised, too late, that I was too close—and too far gone—to resist any longer.

As I pulled her up out of the dip, my fingers found their way into her hair and my lips found their way to hers. She tasted like alcohol and smelled faintly of stale cigarettes. Neither of us had smoked, but the walk had seen us pass many smokers huddled together to avoid the darkness. That was the thing about a common life, it hurt to be alone. Suddenly, with my hands wrapped around her and my tongue lodged halfway down her throat, I found myself imagining Alice's world. She would have been lonely too, but with no remedy. She would never know who her real friends were —if she even had any—and who was just there because of her cash. I found myself empathising with her position, understanding why she found my way of life so fascinating; there were certain freedoms afforded by a lack of funds. I suddenly desired to show her one more of those freedoms…a one night stand. At least that's how I convinced myself to start the seduction of the Goddess who was gracing my world with her presence for a short time. I just hoped that it wasn't the last item on some mental checklist of hers, the one thing she desired before returning to her designer digs.

I lifted her into me, pulling her body ever closer until my arms were completely filled with her. My kisses grew more tender, before I lifted my mouth away from hers and trailed hot, wet kisses along her jaw and onto her neck.

She tucked her legs around my waist and I stepped forward with her until I reached the couch pressed against the wall. I perched her on the top of the backrest, before kneeling on the worn seat, ignoring the springs that poked into my knee. I pushed her dress up her body, sliding it to rest around her midriff, before settling in between her legs and sliding my fingers along the elastic of her panties.

I knew she wanted me as badly as I wanted her; it was as if I could sense the lust rolling off her. I kissed her stomach softly, barely able to restrain the growls and groans that ached to escape from my lips at the sensation of her skin; soft and supple. She smelled like roses and tasted like… well, she tasted like sweat, but it was the sweetest sweat that had ever passed my lips. Her pheromones were sending my desire into overdrive.

In one swift movement, I ripped off her panties and introduced her to the Australian kiss; my tongue was buried deep in her folds and my nose gently brushed across her clit. If I'd thought her skin was divine, I soon learned it had nothing on the taste of her arousal. I flattened my tongue out and licked slowly up and down across her entrance. Her hands found my hair and her calves wrapped tightly around my shoulders as I grabbed at her ass for better purchase. I listened in wonder at the sounds she made as I swirled my tongue in intricate patterns.

Without thought, one of my hands found the buttons on my jeans and I was pushing them down, together with my boxers. I slid up her body quickly, claiming her mouth with mine as I thrust into her.

The couch creaked beneath my feet as I stood upright on it. A brief image of my foot going through the padding to end up on the floor flittered through my mind, so I stepped back, dragging Alice with me and spinning us both around. I sat heavily on the couch, pulling her on top of me. I adjusted my hips to push further into her as she took control.

She was wild as she ground against my cock. It was as if a caged animal had suddenly been released. I grabbed the material of her dress in my hands and pulled it over her head, tilting her slightly off balance. She adjusted herself quickly, pressing her hands into my chest and pushing me back into the cushions.

I unfastened her bra and drank in the sight of her; naked and bouncing over me. I took her perfect little breasts into my mouth, sucking one nipple while fingering the other. She began to moan—deep and throaty moans—interspersed regularly with my name.

"Fuck!" I exclaimed as she drove me closer to the edge. She flicked her hips once more and I was sent tumbling, spilling roughly into her with a roar. She continued to rock against me and I pressed my fingers against her clit as she slammed into my hips. Moments later, she clutched my shoulders, her long nails digging deep into my flesh even through the material that covered me, and cried out as she came hard around me.

"Fuck," I murmured again as I laid my head against her chest, kissing any skin within easy reach. She rested heavily against me, her breathing shallow and rapid. We sat like that for ages, my fingers gently massaging the soft skin of her lower back and buttocks. I knew it was a one-time thing and I wanted it to last as long as possible. Eventually she kissed my mouth softly and without another word, headed for the shower.

After her exit, I took a moment to take stock. I kicked off my pants and pulled my boxers back up. I hadn't even realised I was almost fully dressed, only taking off as much as was necessary to screw her senseless. I turned off the light in the lounge-room, leaving the one in the hall on. I pulled the blanket up over myself and tried to process what had just happened. One thing was clear. I had fucked up the one thing I had actually enjoyed lately—a fledgling friendship with Alice.

I lay staring at the backrest for the longest time while I heard the shower going. Once it stopped, I forced my eyes shut and tried to clear my mind of the image of Alice naked.

I listened as her feet quietly padded past the couch, and thought I imagined her fingers dance fleetingly across the back of my neck.

~ 0 ~

I woke to shouting. No, not shouting…screaming. I looked quickly around for something to arm myself with, certain Alice was being murdered. I grabbed a large, ugly floral vase my mother had bought me years ago when she declared that my unit needed a feminine touch—it had remained hidden behind the TV since, only seeing the light of day when she was coming to visit—and raced into the bedroom. I was surprised to see Alice sitting in the middle of the bed, in a sexy black satin nightie, looking around her wildly. I approached her like I would a wild animal; slowly, and with my hands raised at shoulder height beside me.

"I saw a spider!" she exclaimed.

I couldn't help myself, I burst out laughing. "_That _was about a spider?"

She shook her hand. "You don't understand! It was bigger than my hand. It wasn't just a spider…it was a monster!"

I tried unsuccessfully to stop my laughter. I quickly hunted down the 'monster' and helped it find its way outside. I grabbed two beers from the fridge on my way back to the bedroom. I offered one to Alice, which she accepted and necked almost instantly. I smiled wryly that if nothing else, I had cheapened her taste in drinks.

I sat on the edge of my bed while we finished our drinks. An awkward silence filled the room, breaking my heart because it confirmed what I already knew; my lust filled attack had changed things between us. I was just about to make an excuse and leave, when she clasped my hand.

"Can you stay?" she asked.

I nodded, I couldn't deny her anything. She pulled back the blanket and we curled into each other beneath it. Moments later, her lips found mine, and this time she explored my body. She pulled off my shirt and pushed down my boxers, leaving me exposed as she climbed over me in her cool satin slip. She licked and sucked her way across my body, infusing me with heat. Blood rushed to my cock and it was hard, ready and waiting. I cried out in ecstasy as she mounted me again, her nightie pooling around our joined hips. She moved in a slow but sensual rhythm. I lay beneath her, watching with reverence at her upturned chin and the way the left strap of her negligee fell over her shoulder. I gently raised my hand and stroked one finger along the neckline. As my fingertips stroked her soft skin, I felt a fresh wave of awe that _the_ Alice Cullen had chosen to be with me, not once but twice.

Her back arched further as she took her pleasure from me and drew me closer to mine. Occasionally her head would tip down toward me and her eyes would meet mine fleetingly. Whenever they did, there was an emotion there I didn't recognise and couldn't understand. I needed to know more, so I wrapped her securely in my arms and flipped us over so that she would have to look at me.

She cried out as I moved over her, rocking us both toward oblivion. I locked eyes with her and tried to decipher her feelings. As I did, my mouth was drawn toward hers and I kissed her again. My thrusts began to push further into her, matching the depth of our kiss. I filled her completely, and she willingly took all I had to offer. As I plunged my body and soul into her, I found myself dreading the end of our tryst, filled with fear that it would signal the beginning of the end of everything.

~ 0 ~

I woke to the sound of Alice's buzz-saw snoring, but I couldn't find it unattractive—surprising, yes, unattractive, no. I sat up in bed, ignoring the fuzzy feeling in my mouth and the pounding of my head, and watched her sleeping. I had no idea what consequences would come of our actions the night before, but I couldn't regret them. I had convinced myself that I wanted to show her the fun of a one-night stand, but even the thought of her leaving, moving on and living somewhere else, hurt.

As I watched her chest rise and fall—accompanied by _that_ sound—I thought back over the past few days. Something had changed within me, and I knew it was all because of Alice. I could no longer pretend that I didn't feel anything for her. I desperately wanted to decipher the unknown emotion in her eyes while we were making love. I couldn't allow myself to hope it was the same emotion I was feeling. For all I knew, she considered last night a drunk fuck and a full stop on her time with me. I felt sick at the thought and climbed from the bed to try to put a little distance between us so that I could think clearly.

The pain of considering her possible rejection threatened to buckle my knees as I moved around to her side of the bed. I stopped myself short as I realised how easily she had slotted into my life. So readily in fact, that giving up half of my bed seemed only natural. I wondered how the little minx had been able to turn my whole life upside-down in such a short space of time, and if she could possibly feel the same way I did.

I knew I couldn't live in her world, just as she could never really live in mine, but I hoped that we would be able to find a middle ground—somewhere between the penniless commoner and billionaire heiress. I knew one thing; I couldn't let the morning pass without telling her that everything had changed. I needed her to know how I felt.

She stretched languidly as she woke and her eyes quickly travelled to the spot on the bed I should have been occupying and widened slightly when she realised I wasn't there. I sat onto the bed beside her and softly stroked her cheek once with the back of my hand. She smiled up at me and that gave me hope.

"Alice…" I started, drawing my hand away and placing it in my lap. "I think we need to talk."

She shook her head. "Later," she murmured, before wrapping her legs around my waist and drawing my face down toward hers.

~ 0 ~

_A/N:- In case you are still wondering what an Australian kiss is; it's like a French kiss, but down-under ;)_


End file.
